Campaign To Repeal California DREAM Act Begins

SAN DIEGO  California Republican Assemblyman Tim Donnelly can begin his signature drive to overturn the DREAM Act, which was signed into law earlier this month by Gov. Jerry Brown.

Donnelly, a member of the Tea Party and founder of the Minuteman Party in California, has 74 days to collect signatures to put the DREAM Act up for a vote in November 2012. Donnelly needs to collect 504,000 signatures to place the repeal on the ballot.

At the start of his petition drive, Donnelly said the DREAM Act would come at a great cost to the state, especially at a time when universities have raised fees by 12 percent across California.

"Here we are, at a time when we have just slashed the university system by $1.3 billion, and there are fewer spots for all students," said Donnelly. "But somehow we have got that money to pay for people who are in the country illegally?"

The DREAM Act is expected to cost $13 million on its first year of implementation. But Democratic Assemblyman Gil Cedillo, who wrote the bill that Brown signed, has said the DREAM Act will help California in the long run despite the cost.